About Android Apps of the Day

Android has over 450,000 apps. With so many apps out there, app discovery (aka finding new and useful apps) is extremely difficult. With our Android Apps of the Day[6] initiative, dotTech aims to change that. Everyday we post three apps, allowing our readers to discover new apps, daily. Enjoy! [Subscribe to our Android section to never miss an article: RSS Feed[4] | E-mail[5]]

Apps for July 18, 2012

Camera Launcher for Nexus 7

[9]I got my Nexus 7 in the mail today. I opened up the box, fired up the brand new tablet, and immediately started playing around with it. It’s almost the perfect tablet, but there’s one small thing missing from it: there’s no camera app. Camera Launcher for Nexus 7 provides just that: the regular Android 4.1 camera app just as Google intended it.

Google’s reason for not including a camera app is pretty clear. The Nexus 7 only has a front-facing camera, and the photos taken by it are not of a very high quality. It is clearly not meant for anyone to take photos with. But it’s a Nexus, and because of that, it’s easily hackable. Within a few days of its release, developers had come up with a way to launch a built-in but hidden camera app that allows you to take photos. This is Camera Launcher for Nexus 7.

CL4N7 is just a wrapper for the native camera app, so it’s essentially just adding the original Android camera app back onto your device. It’s great for anyone who wants to take the occasional photograph with their devices and realizes that they only have their Nexus 7 with them.

AndroSensor

[12]Are you looking for sensory overload? AndroSensor is the device for you. It lets you, the human, access the raw datastreams being transmitted a series of ones and zeros across your device’s many chips, and view location, acceleration, orientation, battery, light, and much more data.

Of course AndroSensor doesn’t literally provide access to the ones and zeros. It provides access to the numbers: your GPS or WiFi-set location, your acceleration, rotation, orientation, ambient light levels, sound level, battery status, and even magnetic field. The exact data depends on the chips in your device, but it’s a great program just for checking things out.

AndroSensor is a free app for anyone wishing to check out their sensor data, and is available on Play Store.

GPS Test

[15]Looking to test your GPS signal quality? GPS Test is the app for you. Even if your device is left searching and never connecting, you can view detailed satellite and connection information.

GPS Test’s home screen allows you to view the visible satellites and their signal strength, as well as a multitude of other quick information. When you tap on any of the icons at the bottom, you can view a radar-like screen showing your location relative to the satellites, your approximate location on earth, your speed, and GPS-coordinated time.

If you’re wondering why GPS isn’t connecting, try to see if there aren’t many satellites or if they’re all quite weak. That could indicate you need to move to a better location or that your device simply has a bad GPS chip.

dotTechies: We have tested all the apps listed above. However, Android Apps of the Day articles are not intended as “reviews” but rather as “heads-up” to help you discover new apps. Always use your best judgement when downloading apps, such as trying trial/free versions before purchasing paid apps, if applicable.